America's top diplomat notes Sierra Leone's "Amazing Show of National Unity"

The House-to-House Ebola Talk campaign continues throughout the country and is an amazing show of national unity. Sierra Leoneans have embraced the effort and are welcoming the dialogue. The radio stations are playing Ebola-related songs, public service announcements, and discussions with experts.

The people I have spoken to feel that something needed to be done to bring information about Ebola to arm each household for the ongoing battle.

Operationally, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the World Health Organization, World Food Program, United Nations Population Fund, UNICEF, MSF, and other international non-governmental organizations are working around-the-clock to get those seeking treatment into centers and testing and providing proper burials to corpses being found.

This has not been an easy task and we will have a better idea of what the challenges countrywide are after the districts have an opportunity to report in.

President Koroma participated in the Emergency Operations Center meeting on September 20 and asked that he get an unvarnished report on the outcomes and challenges of the exercise. During the campaign, a new holding/treatment center was established at the Police Training Center at Hastings.

Emergency Hospital has done a great job staffing Lakka, which is newly opened and now full.

Connaught continues its heroic work as well. The new U.S./ECHO-funded International Federation of the Red Cross facility is now open in Kenema, but slowly building up its capacity to take more patients. The key to stopping the virus is isolating victims and getting them treatment.

This coming week, it will be important to build on what we learned from this three-day period to mount an even stronger attack on the virus.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Alhassan Jalloh, a former student at Fourah Bay College (FBC), graduated in the 1990s. Comparing the level of violence on campus now to his time at FBC, he said it is a "totally new phenomenon." Club initiations were "a bit physical but not in this kind of way,” he said. Alhassan, whose cousin fell victim to (violent hazing) said that when visited his old club during a trip from the United States, he found things were different from the way it used to be. He blamed the present scenario on post-war mentality.

Dr. Edward Nahim, the only Sierra Leonean psychiatrist for years, defined violence as: “infliction of physical or psychological harm on an individual for him or her to feel severe pain or discomfort.”

He said that though student violence is not new, the war and (mind-altering) drugs have accelerated the rates of violence among students. He pointed out that the main reason for students embarking on violence is drug abuse.

Sierra Leone marks its 58th Independence Anniversary today. The national day celebrated on April 27 commemorates the restoration of Sierra Leone's sovereignty in 1961 from the Britsh empire. Unfortunately, empty seats photographed on Saturday, April 27 at the national stadium in the capital city of Freetown has raised eyebrows. The stadium has a 36,000 capacity and pulls large crowds during football games.

Our leaders were divided on the eve of independence in 1961. Since then, every change in government has been accompanied by accusations by the new government that it inherited a broken country and economy.

President Kabbah accused the NPRC of emptying the country’s coffers. President Koroma levied the same accusation against President Kabbah’s government. Enter President Bio-ditto.

Accusations apart, what has become apparent over the past 11 years has been the division of the country along party lines and the government sharing the spoils to party supporters in a country where parties are roughly aligned along regional and tribal lines. The winning party would kick most heads of institutions out and in some cases, clear out whole institutions of senior staff and install their own supporters. The res…